Washington County event to help the area's homeless population on tap for next week

View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The OregonianDental technicians provide free services to the homeless during the 2009 staging of Washington County Project Homeless Connect. This year's event, set for Friday, Jan. 27, is expected to draw upwards of 500 people.

More than 500 adults and children are expected to receive free medical and dental treatments, along with professional referrals to dozens of other critical services, at the 6th annual Washington County Project Homeless Connect event next Friday, Jan. 27.

The one-day event at Sonrise Church will assemble dozens of medical professionals, volunteers and social service agency representatives, all focused on helping those who are homeless or at risk of losing their housing.

In Washington County, organizers spend months leading up to the event trying to calculate where particular needs have grown and how they can organize to best fill in the gaps.

This year, for instance, based on information gathered at last year's session, more dental assistance will be offered, said Kim Marshall, event coordinator. In addition to on-site cleanings, buses will be available this year to shuttle people down the street to Pacific University Dental Health Clinic, where an additional 16 chairs will be staffed.

"What we already know is that this demographic has a higher chance of becoming homeless sooner than any prior group of veterans," Belt said. "We'll do anything we can to provide medical care, represent them in filing claims with the federal Veterans Administration or give them links to local services."

Other services that will be provided include haircuts, vision exams, housing information, HIV testing, flu shots, veterinary care for those with pets, chiropractic and free food -- both hot meals prepared and served on site and boxed meals that can be carried away.

The event serves another purpose, as well, by providing a focal point for the federally mandated Point in Time homeless count. Every county in the nation is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to count its homeless population during the last 10 days in January, Marshall said. Numbers arrived at during those counts are used to allot federal money for homeless programs to individual counties, she said.

Other means are also used in the tabulation, including counts taken at area warming shelters. In addition, teams of volunteers head out to known homeless camps around the county to reach people who may not be able to make it to the event in Hillsboro.

"But Project Homeless Connect is a big, big part of the 10-day count," she said.